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Assignment 1, Part II A CRITIQUE OF DYCHE HALL

Arch 658 Fall 2016

The building under study is the Dyche Hall commonly known as the Museum of Natural History,
located on the Jayhawk Boulevard. For the purpose of the current assignment, Evans and McCoys
principles (1998) have been used to establish how one perceives its interior spaces. Furthermore,
Cooper Marcuss writings on archetypes (1974) have then been used to determine how the
buildings exterior expression is significant as a historic symbol in its surroundings with NorbergSchulzs concept of genius loci (1980) to support it.
The Dyche Hall, which opened in
1903, was built to house the
burgeoning

natural

history

collections of the university. The


five storey building has been
designed in the Romanesque style
of southern France where the typical religious iconography has been replaced by sculptures and
murals of birds, animals and reptiles to reflect the collections inside. The external wall is made of
Oread limestone quarried on site. The interior has a large room with panoramic views of L.L.
Dyches panorama that featured in the 1893 Worlds Columbian exhibition making him nationally

famous. The building is considered one the most beautiful on campus and is among few to be still
used for its original purpose. It underwent structural renovations in 1932-41 and a seven storey
wing was added in 1963. The Dyche Hall was placed in the National Registry for Historic Places
in 1973. It houses nine million living and fossil plants and animals and 1.5 million artefacts.

Bhaswati Mukherjee

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Assignment 1, Part II A CRITIQUE OF DYCHE HALL

Arch 658 Fall 2016

Currently, it has been ranked as the top natural history museum in a public university in the
country. (http://www2.ku.edu/~union/hmof/landmarks/dyche.shtml)
While the external form of the building is well appreciated, I shall be looking into how a person
might interact with the interior spaces when they visit the museum. One of the most important
aspects of a public building is that a new visitor should be able find his way around without much
difficulty. Legibility or the ease with which one can perceive and navigate the spatial configuration
can make a building coherent to its visitor (Evans & McCoy, 1998, p 87). However, in the Dyche
Hall, there are several areas where one might find it difficult to comprehend his next move. For
example, there is a sign that
leads to a room for public
education, but on reaching there
one would encounter a locked
door. This level of ambiguity is especially true of the additional wing. Here, one would encounter
several long corridors and would have to walk through furniture storage areas to access exhibitions.
There are some really nice images on the walls but the corridors are long drawn and one feels as
though they are following the route to the emergency fire exit. The Guggenheim Museum in New
York, on the other hand, is an example
where

the

central

atrium

gives

visibility to the entire layout, thereby,


making the museum space much more
legible to visitors, always giving them
Incoherent
Transition
Coherent

a sense of exactly where they are. The


original exhibition space at Dyche

Bhaswati Mukherjee

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Assignment 1, Part II A CRITIQUE OF DYCHE HALL

Arch 658 Fall 2016

with its numerous openings, though doesnt define a clear path, is fairly coherent in terms of
navigation within the space.
Lack of climatic control and inflexible spatial arrangements can
also threaten the ease with which an individual interacts with an
interior space (Evans & McCoy, 1998, p 88-89). The air
conditioning system at Dyche Hall, is an aspect that needs revision
as it lacks individual control, leading to uncomfortable interior
temperatures. The windowless galleries, though ideal for museum
exhibits at times, can make one feel claustrophobic due to the lack
of connectivity with the outside, especially in tight corners that are
also devoid of museum exhibits. This problem is absent where there is interaction with the outside
such as the bee exhibit where one knows exactly
where they are and the connection with the
exterior increases the sense of spaciousness
leading to a sense of comfort in spite of being in
an enclosed space with live bees.
As the main purpose of the museum is to impart information, stimulation plays a very important
part in its functioning, as it describes the amount of information in a setting that impinges upon
the human user. Human beings function optimally at moderate amount of stimulation, hence both
the lack and excessive stimulation can cause stress (Evans & McCoy, 1998, p 85-86). At Dyche
Hall, several of the exhibits were over crowded with too many elements. With nine million

Bhaswati Mukherjee

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Assignment 1, Part II A CRITIQUE OF DYCHE HALL

different
perhaps

samples
the

space

in

Arch 658 Fall 2016

collection,

available

is

insufficient to house them all. Hence,


when looking at some of the displays,
a visitor might feel overwhelmed and
confused when confronted with an
overdose of information at once. These collections are pretty impressive on their own, yet the
overcrowded displays possibly reduce their impact when the visitor is unable to process all of them
at once. Given the size of the collection, there is a dire need to expand the building to incorporate
the exhibits where one can do them proper justice. As mentioned earlier, some of the photo exhibits
on the corridors leading to fire exits could also find better display areas in this process.
Overall, if one analyses the Dyche on Evans and McCoys (1998) principles, it is evident that there
are some serious issues that makes the top ranked natural history museum a failure in terms of its
environmental quality that induces stress in its occupants.
On examining the exterior expression of the Dyche hall, one can analyses how a visitor may
perceive the building from the outside as an archetype. The archetype is a node of psychic energy
that can be represented in the real world as an
archetypical image or a symbol (Cooper
Marcus, 1974, p 131). While travelling on the
Jayhawk Boulevard, one encounters numerous
old buildings that have sprung up over the years
and have accumulated historic significance
further supported by the influence of older
Bhaswati Mukherjee

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Assignment 1, Part II A CRITIQUE OF DYCHE HALL

Arch 658 Fall 2016

architectural styles from Europe. The Dyche Hall stands out among them as a model of the
Romanesque style. However, its true purpose is evident from the outside itself due to the presence
of the bird, beast and reptilian motifs and sculptures on it that have replaced the typical religious
symbols in Romanesque architecture. There are 12 grotesques that were carved in 1901-1902
and resemble the gargoyles on
medieval buildings minus the drain
pipes. There are also numerous
freezes of fantastic animals and
plants and other decorative elements
that symbolically show what to
expect when one enters the building
(http://www2.ku.edu/~build/cgi-bin/dyche-hall-grotesques). So in a manner of speaking, the
building expression itself conditions ones mind for what is to come on the inside.
Another concept that can highlight the same feeling is the concept of genius loci which
essentially is the spirit of a place that makes a space meaningful and helps a person dwell in it.
It is not enough to make practical buildings, architecture has to concretize genius loci by creating
buildings which gather characteristics of the place and help people dwell poetically and know how
they belong to a place. (Norberg Schulz, 1980, p 6-10) The use of the local material of Oread
limestone quarried on site is one of the factors that makes this building belong. Its over 100 years
of history is another factor.
A good design is one which protects a visitor from too abrupt a change in time worlds. So the
museum lobby is supposed to prepare the visitor for the shock of moving from the outside traffic
to its own detached quiet world (Sommer, 1972, p 76). This function can be performed by the
Bhaswati Mukherjee

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Assignment 1, Part II A CRITIQUE OF DYCHE HALL

Arch 658 Fall 2016

threshold which is a very important dividing line that separates inner space from the outer world
(Cooper Marcus, 1974, p 141). The Dyche Hall has incorporated the threshold brilliantly with the
double heighted lobby space
and a hanging dinosaur
skeleton that automatically
transcends the visitor to the
world of natural history as
soon

as

building.

he

enters

As

the

already

mentioned, this process of moving the visitor to a different world begins from the exterior motifs
and sculptures.
Overall the building can be termed as a success in terms of building a strong and a culturally
significant image for itself. In conclusion, it would seem that the original building was fairly
successful both in terms of its interior and its exterior. The newer addition though blends with the
exterior, is not a very welcoming space internally. The building size has become inadequate for
the volume of the collection and an internal remodeling of the newer wing or perhaps another new
wing altogether could solve the issue. Finally, since it has retained its original purpose for well
over a century, the building becomes very a very important landmark on the Jayhawk Boulevard.

Bhaswati Mukherjee

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Assignment 1, Part II A CRITIQUE OF DYCHE HALL

Arch 658 Fall 2016

References:
Cooper Marcus, C. (1974). Designing for human behavior, the house as a symbol of the self, 130146
Dyche

Hall

Natural

History

Museum,

Retrieved

from

http://www2.ku.edu/~union/hmof/landmarks/dyche.shtml
Dyche hall Grotesques, Retrieved from http://www2.ku.edu/~build/cgi-bin/dyche-hall-grotesques
Evans, G.W. & McCoy, J.M. (1998). When buildings dont work: The role of architecture in
human health. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 18, 85- 94
Sommer, R. (1972). Design awareness, Space-time, 66-81
Norberg-Schulz, C. (1980). Genius Loci: Towards a phenomenology of architecture, 5-10

Bhaswati Mukherjee

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